ADAMS CONFIDENT

8 March 2013

Dave Johnson

Vale boss confident goals will begin to flow again

Micky Adams feels confident Vale can get their act together and push on in the final ten fixtures of the season and he saw enough on Tuesday night to suggest things are starting to click back in place.

The Vale boss said: “Looking back at the events during Tuesday’s game against Bradford, we could quite easily have won it - we could quite easily have lost it, but the positive thing from our point of view is that we have kept a clean sheet.

“Their manager said to me afterwards, that probably suited us more than it suited them and I think that is quite correct.

“We have all seen the quality of Bradford this season and they need to win games rather than draw them to get to where they want to go.”

Vale’s inability to score goals like they were earlier in the season has been a bit of a concern, but Adams is confident that is about to change.

“The hardest part of football is scoring goals and I think of you look at our record this season, we are the top goal scorers in the division and so we know we are capable of doing that.

”I thought we looked a little bit brighter going forward on Tuesday night and we certainly had chances to win the game, so that will come.

“We approach this stage of the season where there is ten games to go, with thirty points possible. We need to keep the points tally ticking over, whether it is a point or three points.

“We need to concentrate on ourselves and keep doing all of the things that we believe in, because we have got to where we are because of that process.

“We are a decent side and I have said it many times before, lots of things will happen and we have got to keep our nerve.

“A lot of the teams are going to be playing each other, so they can’t all get three points, they are going to take points of each other.

“We have got some big games coming up against teams that are going to be in and around the promotion picture, as we can help ourselves. The good thing is we are in a good position and it is all about us and what we do.

“We have got a good squad and we might add to it before the window closes, we have not ruled that out, but the good thing is, if I need to go out and strengthen, the Chairman will allow me to do it.”

- a gap they could still make up in their final few games of the season. Saturday’s opponents Southend currently occupy eighth place in the league, just a few points off the play-off places

Boss Paul Sturrock certainly won‘t have given up on a play-off place just yet, even though his club have a chance to pick up silverware at Wembley Stadium in a few weeks time.

Adams says: “He will want to push them forward and he will want to try his best to at least close the gap. I don’t really see the point of him coming here and shutting up shop and trying to nick a point or trying to nick a win.

“Knowing Paul, he will be nice and positive. He’s not going to flood the midfield, I think he will probably play four-four-two, which has been his chosen formation all season.

“Every week you throw down the gauntlet to players and tell them what they must do if they want to keep the shirt.

“Their incentive in April is to win that Football League Trophy (Johnstone’s Paint Trophy) and they have got every chance of doing that.”